


The Captain Always Loved a Good Rescue

by keerawa



Category: Firefly, The Wire
Genre: AU, Chromatic Character, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-24
Updated: 2010-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-14 02:06:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/144152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keerawa/pseuds/keerawa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Omar Little has gone too far this time.  Every hand in the 'verse is against him - except for the crew of the Serenity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Captain Always Loved a Good Rescue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [novembersmith](https://archiveofourown.org/users/novembersmith/gifts).



Serenity was sitting powered down in the middle of an asteroid field, trying to look like a rock. It was just this side of suicidal, but that much safer than getting found by the Alliance gunship that’d been hunting them down. Their captain had gotten a touch riled over a job they’d pulled on Dyton last week. Mal was eyeing the asteroid slowly coasting towards them and considering which of the three stupid plans he had in mind were least likely to get them killed when the gunship suddenly lit its engines and took off at top speed.

Mal had Wash pull them out of the asteroid belt and head in the opposite direction, as fast as her engines would take them. Then he headed for his bunk to get some sleep, his first in the past three days.

“Sir,” Zoe interrupted him from the console, “You need to see this.”

“ _Tzao-gao_ , Zoe, can’t it wait?”

She shook her head stubbornly. “Figured out why that gunship left in such a hurry. Looks like an old friend of ours might be in trouble.”

Mal stumbled over to the console and Zoe played the broadcast for him. All Alliance forces were ordered to hunt down Omar Little, a thief who had stolen experimental military technology from the research base on Osiris. They were offering a reward of -

Mal broke off with a whistle. That was enough to buy a man a lifetime supply of, well, everything. “Omar Little? _Sergeant_ Omar Little?” he asked Zoe. “I thought he died on Hera.”

Zoe shrugged. “Always was a hard man to kill.”

“And the _tah mah duh hwoon dahn_ ’s just crazy enough to try and pull something like this off.” Mal said admiringly. He forced his brain to think – it was like prodding a horse to ford a fast river. “With that much money on the table, every hand in the ‘verse is gonna be against him.”

“Yes sir,” Zoe agreed.

“We should stay as far away from him as we can. Or better yet, go turn Omar in ourselves for the bounty. That’d be the smart thing to do.”

“That’s all true, sir,” Zoe said. “So we’ll be …”

“Heading in to try and help him,” Mal muttered. “Any idea where Omar might go to ground?”

“A few. I know he was sweet on that recruit, Brandon, who took some shrapnel in the Kali battle. He was homesteading on Ita, last I heard. Might be a good place to start looking. And if I’m wrong, best we find Brandon before the Alliance do.”

Mal nodded. “Wash, lay in a course for Ita. Zoe, round everybody up for a meeting in ten minutes.”

“Yes sir. A meeting in ten hours,” Zoe said.

“Hours – no, minutes. I said ten hours, right? I mean, minutes?” Mal said, blinking.

“Wash, how long’s it gonna take us to get to Ita?” Zoe called over her shoulder, gently steering Mal out the door and towards his bunk.

“16 hours or so!” Wash called from the pilot’s seat.

“Plenty of time for you to get some sleep. Reckon the meeting will go more smooth that way. Less chance of you having to shoot anybody.”

“Good point,” he agreed. “Very good point. Because if I shoot them, they’ll be … shot.” His bunk was comfortable.

“Exactly, sir. Sleep well,” Zoe said, pulling off Mal’s boots and leaving them by his bunk before turning off the lights.


End file.
